Ananya would love to be here.

He placed the notebook on a 30KW motor and started climbing up. The cooling towers rose up to thirty feet in front of him. It was the best place in the factory on a humid Monday evening. Everyone who had some business in that area took a leisurely walk through the corridor that went right into the middle of the tower. Water sprinkling everywhere, the interior of the tower was a sight to watch.

Ananya would love to be here.

He knew the management would never let Ananya come anywhere near the Cooling Tower or the Prilling Tower or the Baggage Area.. Girls were not allowed on the factory floor. They were confined to the administration.

She detested her job and envied him. He detested his job and loved her.

There were Ammonia fumes everywhere. For the first couple of weeks, it got on to his nerves. However as days went by he grew accustomed to such smells. Working in a Chemical factory, though as an electrical engineer, was not easy.

He reached the top of the cooling tower CL-1. The roof was in a mess. No housekeeping here. The giant motors were all humming their signature tune. He went to each and every motor, looked at them, listened to them and felt them – A routine LLF test. (Look Listen Feel)

Ananya would love to be here.

Since his college days, he had developed an admiration for his bubbly classmate who unfortunately was confined to the air-conditioned interiors of the IT department of the factory – located comfortably near the Far East corner of the plant.

In the final year of their course, they had been assigned the same project – Digital Computer Simulation of 3 Phase Induction Motor. She loathed it. She fought tooth and nail with the professor and got it changed to some Impedance relay project. He did not even remember the title of their project work because most of the work was done by Ananya. He tried at times to help her but she brushed him off. It was her project. She would do it. He could be in the vicinity and stare at the project or at her as long as he wanted but he could not lay his hands on the project.

He checked the engine parameters of the motor and made a mental note that he should ask the technician to get an RPM reading. It was an unwritten rule in the plant that Engineers would not carry the toolkit. It was the technician’s job to take measurements. He had a similar view. He was pretty lousy with the tools. He could never take a proper tachometer reading without breaking the meter shaft.

Ananya on the other hand loved doing such things with a remarkable finesse. She wanted to be an Electrical engineer. When a famous software company wanted to offer her a campus placement she politely declined saying that Ohm’s Law was much more interesting to her than Pressman’s Software Engineering principles.

Ananya would love to be here.

Their relationship had never been clearly defined. No one knew where it was heading. He suspected that the second most important factor which influenced her decision of joining this chemical concern was that he was also offered a job here. The first should be the Buchholz Relay.

She fought with him. She argued with him. She shouted at him. But she was with him almost all the time. They shared a remarkable chemistry. They were the thickest of friends one second and the bitterest of enemies the very next.

He flunked the very first campus interview. She dumped it. He was selected by this chemical factory. She accepted it. It was a rude shock to her when the HR Manager told her on the very first day of induction that she’d be required to work with the IT department of the plant whereas her friend would be in charge of the maintenance of electrical subsystems.

She tried to reason with the HR manager that the very reason why she chose this job over a plush software job was being compromised.

Helen of Troy grunted as if it were protesting the rule.

The multi megawatt motor sitting right next to the cooling tower was nicknamed The Helen of Troy simply because of her sheer size. The factory was located in a remote corner of Andhra Pradesh. The employees knew nothing about the Helen of Troy until a Brad Pitt version of it was released in the town – dubbed in Telugu.

Ananya hated the movie. She drew comparisons with an old movie of the same story. She did not like Brad Pitt.

Ananya would love to be here.

She loved those big machines. She had an uncanny knack of talking to the machines. The machines listened to her. When she ordered, the machines obliged. They shared a relationship perplexing to the three dimensional world. Perhaps they worked in a higher dimension.

She wanted to be in the field; touch the Buchholz Relay and say hi to the rattlesnakes coiling the huge power transformers. However the management did not think so. She raised a hue and cry over the issue. She vociferously protested the gender bias.

But it wasn’t gender discrimination. It was more of a safety regulation. Field work in the factory was too taxing for the women employees. So they were mostly given office work, whereas the supposedly tough men were made in charge of running the plant.

He leaned on the motor and looked around.

From there, the plant presented a fabulous picture. It was dusk. The lights were blazing. West was crimson red. The color combination was mind-boggling. He inspected the auxiliary motors quickly and walked to the ladder.

The ammonia fumes were a little intense now. He knew something was wrong. The plant was actually operating at a little over 25% of its capacity because one of the two prilling towers had to be shut down after a lightening strike. The conductor did its job properly. However there was some jump discharge from the cable to the nearest electrical system. A surge traveled through the control systems.

They shut it down indefinitely. Prilling would commence only after a thorough check of the control systems.

So there was no reason why so much of Ammonia was in the air.

He went to the nearest phone booth and dialed Operations.

A sleepy voice answered the phone. They apparently had an Ammonia leak. They were working on it. No ETC at the moment.

He checked his watch. He had exactly half an hour to log the LLF report and reach the canteen for the 7 o’clock snack break.

He typed everything including the increase in Ammonia levels though he knew it was not needed.

The weather was enthralling. The energy was almost visible. The plant had its own personality. Many held the opinion that the plant was living. Though the pay was less, the excitement of climbing a two storey tall Transformer to inspect the Buchholz Relay was the USP of that job.

Ananya would love to be here.

He walked briskly to the canteen. His favorite corner was unoccupied. As he slowly munched his sandwich, he saw the entire plant coming into the cafeteria.

Ananya would love to be here.

He stared at his opposite chair.

Ananya would love to be here.

She loved Latte with Brownies. If the coffee-break was long enough, she would finish all the brownies available there.

He looked at the entrance.

Ananya would love to be here.

He stared at the empty chair.

Ananya would love to be here.

He was slowly losing it. Ananya would love to be there on the factory floor… She would love to be on the top of the transformer inspecting the Buchholz Relay. She would love to get drenched in the cooling tower. She would love to eat brownies.

And he would love to stare at her. He would love to get admonished by her. He would love to be just with her… in this canteen.

Ananya would love to be here.

The sandwich tasted bitter. He placed it on the table and took out his hand kerchief. Ananya hated tears. At times he would cry when things were not going right but she would scold him whenever she saw his moist eyes. She never let him cry. According to her tears didn’t serve any purpose.

He wiped a tear off his eye. She wouldn’t like to see it. She wouldn’t see it.

Ananya would love to be here.

He broke down at once. Tears were flowing freely. Someone was shouting, “Venu, are you alright?”.

Ananya would love to be here… in this plant… on the floor… in this world…amongst us…

Ananya would love to be here.

May her soul rest in peace.